It is my pleasure to announce Denise M. Reagan as the president of the Society for News Design Foundation effective immediately — she takes on a three-year term that involves leading the Foundation’s efforts in research and education, as well as coordinating the Foundation’s board of trustees.

“I am so excited to take on this new challenge,” said Denise. “I have always been a huge supporter of SNDF’s mission, and I can’t wait to help boost its profile. I want to let people know how the Foundation’s money has helped so many people, from the yearly student travel grants to the scholarship recipients to the free Web Design Boot Camp registrations for unemployed journalists and many more.”

“I have a lot of ideas for new and creative ways to raise money for SNDF’s important programs, and I’ll need help from all of SND’s members and anyone who is interested in supporting the future of our changing industry. Please e-mail me at denisereagan@mac.com if you want to get involved.”

Denise is the Assistant Managing Editor for Visuals at The Florida Times-Union and Jacksonville.com. She leads all aspects of visual communication, including: newspaper design, Web design, photography, video, information graphics, illustration and copy editing. Since early 2006, she has rapidly built The Times-Union’s reputation for hiring bright, young talented designers and artists and putting that talent to use. As the Society for News Design’s Education and Training Director since 2005, she’s stressed the use of non-traditional story forms and high utility. She also helped revitalize the SND Quick Course curriculum to train more in multimedia and online design.

“I’m thrilled that Denise will be taking on this new role”, said SND President Kris Viesselman. “She has served the Society in countless ways. Her dedication –- and enthusiasm for training –- will make her a passionate advocate in this position.”

Denise has been a judge for SND’s Best of Newspaper Design competition, as well the society’s Best of Multimedia Design contest. She offers training at SND Quick Courses, the Poynter Institute and other journalism gatherings on all areas of visual journalism. She is also an adjunct professor at the University of Florida’s College of Journalism and Communications.

Before moving to Jacksonville, Denise spent about a year-and-a-half as news design editor of the Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel, and, before that, another year-and-a-half as the media planning editor at the Savannah Morning News. Denise also worked at the Minneapolis Star Tribune, the Detroit Free Press and the Fort Wayne, Ind., News-Sentinel. She has also collaborated, as a consultant, with MG Redesign on such projects as the redesign of The Spokesman Review in Spokane, Wash. A 1990 graduate of the University of Florida, Denise studied journalism, design and theater. That last one comes as no surprise to any of us who have enjoyed the skits Denise has performed at various SND functions.

The Society will immediately seek Denise’s successor in the Education and Training Director role. Please contact Kris, Stephen Komives or myself if you are interested or know someone who might be.

The SND-Foundation

The Society for News Design Foundation, created in 1992, is the nonprofit education and research effort of SND.

With support from donations and matching grants, the Foundation provides training grants for out-of-work visual journalists (apply here), university-level scholarships, travel grants for students to the Annual Workshop & Exhibition, grants to the student designers of the year and outreach to minority journalists and journalism students at universities with large minority enrollments.

The Foundation also provides research grants for projects on the future of journalism developed in partnership with other journalism organizations.

In 2008, SND received a Challenge Grant from the Challenge Fund for Journalism and opened an endowment campaign for its two scholarship programs.

Supporters contribute to the Foundation through direct donations, sponsorship of Foundation fund-raising events, and by donating or purchasing items and services at the Silent Auction held in conjunction with the Annual Workshop & Exhibition.

Contributions to the SND Foundation are generally tax deductible (in the United States) as charitable donations. To make a donation, please click here.

— Steve Dorsey
SND vice president
SND-Foundation chairman

Gannett has awarded the Society a $10,800 grant to pay registration fees for 36 journalists to attend the two-day Web-training Quick Courses in 2010.

The schedule and sites for the courses will be posted soon on SND’s website.

SND Executive Director Elise Burroughs worked with the Gannett Foundation in the fall to secure the grant.

“You are making an important contribution to our community, and we are proud to be able to assist with these effort,” said Pat Lyle, manager of the Gannett Foundation, in a letter to SND.

SND’s Web Boot Camps made their debut in 2009, with seminars in Nashville, Las Vegas and Chicago. These hands-on seminars teach editors and designers the essential building blocks of the Web 2.0 toolbox: HTML/CSS (the foundation of the Web) and how to integrate widgets from Google, Twitter, Flickr and more.

Seminars were limited to 20-25 students and each one filled up quickly.

By the end of the two days attendees can build a compelling, news-driven package from scratch. The course is a good fit for anyone at the beginner and intermediate levels.

Check back in January for more information about the 2010 Web Boot Camps and how the grant funds will be allocated.

Hello, SND members. I hope this note finds you all in full holiday swing, heading into your best year ever. As 2009 draws to a close, I wanted to update you one last time on where we are.

First, let me commend the board of directors for their leadership is in ensuring that SND remains the largest and most dynamic organization for visual journalists in the world. Serving on this board is a labor of love, and the time and talent they expend is tremendous. It’s a testament to their vision and dedication that SND has been able to deliver so much in such a difficult year. We hosted informal meetups and intensive digital training across the United States. We saw the World’s Best Designed Newspapers on display at the Guttenberg. We staged successful workshops in China, Austria, Finland, Spain and — of course — the incomparable Argentina.

SND is committed to forging the partnerships and reimagining the programming that will keep members on the cutting edge, and you’ll be hearing a lot of exciting ideas from the 2010 team in coming days. Here’s where SND stands heading into the new year:

MEMBERSHIP: As companies continue to cut back on sponsored dues, this remains a sobering headline. In a little more than a year, SND has lost 814 members, or 39% of its membership. The most dramatic drop came between the fall board meeting in 2008, when we had 2,042 members and the spring board meeting in 2009, when we had 1,592. We had 1,371 members at the time of the Buenos Aires election and have lost 143 members since. The 2010 team will be working hard to reverse this trend. Thanks so much to SND leaders who gave them a head start by donating a membership this month.

FINANCIALS: We began the year with $189,328 in our reserve fund. Today it is at $129,451 (a 2009 deficit of $59,877, just over the $50k loss projected at the spring board meeting). I’m pleased to leave SND with a 2010 budget that calls for shoring up the reserve fund instead of depleting it to cover operating costs, as has been recent practice. The board needs to be diligent on this front: SND policy is to maintain a reserve fund equal to 25% of budgeted expenses. Even after realizing significant savings in office overhead, the reserve fund is only 22% of 2010’s budgeted expenses of $598,662. If SND programs perform as expected in 2010, the reserve fund will be restored to where it needs to be.

Closing this gap was made possible in large part by shuttering the Rhode Island office and requiring the new executive director to perform the duties of two full-time staffers. That difficult decision means Membership Manager Susan Santoro’s position will be eliminated at the end of the year.

Susan has agreed to remain with SND through Feb. 26 on a contract basis to assist with the competition. Susan has been a magnificent support to every SND activity for the past decade, and I have an impossible time imagining the organization without her. Please join me in thanking her for being the glue that has held the office together for so many years.

OFFICE MOVE: After a grueling four-day trek through one of the East Coast’s worst snowstorms on record, new Executive Director Stephen Komives has relocated the contents of the Rhode Island office to Orlando (he made the move himself to save SND about $8,000).

Stephen’s been working around the clock to get equipment up and running, arrange a remote working relationship with Susan, transfer SND’s banking and familiarize himself with the accounting protocol. He is now managing all SND operations from a virtual office, checking in with the executive committee weekly.

I hope you’ll take a moment to thank departing Executive Director Elise Burroughs for her leadership as she leaves SND this week after five years. Elise has been a consummate pro through our best and worst, and she is directly responsible for the growth and stability SND has seen in its membership outside the U.S. Thank you, Elise. SND owes you and Susan so much.

SNDF: Susan Mango Curtis has done a tremendous job overseeing SND’s educational and research activities for the past six months. It’s been wonderful having her energy and passion for academic advocacy in the conversation, and I wish I could persuade her to extend her term that ends Dec. 31. The search for our next SNDF President will be Steve Dorsey’s responsibility as SNDF Chair. Until that appointment is made, Steve will take the point on Foundation matters, dealing with the immediate issues of reaching out to design and J-schools regarding our new resource center for educators, organizing the fundraiser at the Syracuse judging and raising the $10k needed for the Edmund Arnold scholarship. SNDF is healthy with just over $73,000 in the bank. The preliminary budget, which Steve will shepherd through, shows a break-even year for 2010.

It is my great pleasure as SNDF Chair to announce news we received from the Gannett Foundation just today, that SND has been awarded a $10,800 grant to support our web design boot camps. Many thanks to Elise for pursuing this funding, and to Education and Training Director Denise Reagan for spearheading this program. SND also owes a great debt to two men who invented our information design tracks more than a decade ago, Don Wittekind and Jeff Goertzen, who both stepped away from the board this year. Thank you, Don and Jeff, for the vision, energy and evangelism that has trained hundreds of visual journalists all over the globe.

HEARTFELT THANKS: My eight years on the board have taken me places I never imagined I’d go, introduced me to people I never dreamed I’d meet, created memories I’ll always cherish and shaped me in ways for which I’ll always be grateful. This opportunity has been very special to me. I’ve felt privileged and humbled to represent SND in several roles — conducting quick courses from Idaho to Toronto, organizing the annual workshop in Orlando, judging the competition at Syracuse, awarding commendations in Buenos Aires. I’ve been professionally and personally inspired by the close association with you.

I’d especially like to offer a standing ovation for my fellow officers, Gayle Grin and Steve Dorsey, for their intelligence, sensitivity and wise counsel. They’ve both carried an inordinate amount of water for SND this year, and I can’t thank them enough.

Finally, a toast to you, the members. My family and I were thrust into SND’s summer tornado during an agonizing time in our personal life, and we are forever grateful for the extraordinary expressions of kindness that came to us from SND colleagues around the world. While I wish things had played out differently in many ways, the events of 2009 have reinforced something I’ve always believed about SND: That more than an organization, it’s also a family.

I’m sending my best wishes for happiness and success in the year ahead.

Always rooting for you,

Bo

Over the past five years Elise has worked tirelessly to strengthen the Society on many fronts, helping find new avenues for fund-raising, spread the Society’s footprint around the globe and countless interactions with members. Elise is a dedicated professional who immerses herself in every challenge. In anticipation of our workshop this fall in Buenos Aires, she even began learning Spanish.

Elise was kind enough to share some of her thoughts on SND, design and the state of the industry.

Question: What were the highlights of your time with the Society for News Design?

Answer: Any time that I was able to meet members face to face — Workshops, judgings, Quick Courses, hotel site visits, board meetings – was always a highlight. It has been a privilege to work with such smart, creative, dedicated journalists – and a lot of fun. I might never have seen Stockholm or Buenos Aires if SND business had not taken me there.

I took satisfaction in helping the directors complete many of the jobs they handed me when I arrived: creating a mission statement, developing a code of ethical standards, adopting a conflict of interest policy, increasing activity outside the United States and, this year, rolling out a draft strategic plan.

But from our office in Rhode Island, Susan Santoro and I had some long-distance highlights, too. Helping regional directors and educators hold successful events in the hinterlands of the United States, and assisting directors overseas find speakers for new training seminars in Germany, France, Jordan, Egypt and China made our jobs worthwhile.

Remote technology is great for some things, but sometimes you just need to sit down with colleagues over a drink or a cup of coffee. Those occasions were some of my SND highlights.

Question: What did you learn about design and designers that most surprised you?

Answer:Great designers look at a world without boundaries. No matter where they are, or what their native language, they can pick up a newspaper, open a magazine or click on a Web site and envision new, better ways to communicate information.

When I came to SND, I ”got” visual storytelling at the movies (director William Wyler almost never needed dialogue). I’m still “getting” visual storytelling when it comes to journalism.

I also learned that good designers are never satisfied. No matter what level they’re working at, novice or veteran, or how little their employers give them to work with, they are constantly looking for new and better ways to tell the same old stories, for new technology and skills that will lead them to new audiences, for new insights and inspiration.

Working with designers has taught me to never be satisfied with the status quo.

Question: Do you find that you read a newspaper or look at news Web sites differently after your time with SND?

Answer: Maybe it comes from five years of proofing columns by Rolf Rehe (who almost never makes a mistake!) but I notice typography now. I even rented (and enjoyed) the movie, “Helvetica.”

And I look forward to the day when SND develops and promotes better principles for online news site design, as it has for print design. Am I the only person who hates online photos signaling a news story that keep dissolving and changing? By the time that I process, “I want to read that!” the story is gone and I have to stare at the screen until it pops up again and pounce. Very annoying!

Question: How has SND changed since you came to the helm as Executive Director?

Answer: I’m tired of the euphemism “challenging.” These are hard, dispiriting times to be a journalist, and SND has had a hard, dispiriting time dealing with changes in the news profession.

When I arrived, SND had been operating a successful financial model for years: Revenue from memberships, the Annual Workshop, the competitions, the Quick Courses and product sales funded the book, the magazine, the newsletter, the Web site, the staff, and modest outreach to students and international designers.

Then the Internet volcano exploded and the advertising drought commenced.

In this new, awful climate, designers are trying to figure out what they need to learn or do that will allow them to pursue the profession they love. SND’s leaders are trying to identify the resources – financial, technical, educational and inspirational – that will allow the Society to meet those member needs.

One positive change: SND has increasingly welcomed input and ideas from designers outside the United States. Sometimes it’s hard to imagine how someone who does not even speak your language can teach you anything about your job. But I think the 30th edition of “The Best of Newspaper Design™” will show that designers around the world face common issues, and there is a lot to learn from how they resolve them.

Question: Do you have anything to suggest to the members?

Answer: When I interviewed for this job more than five years, ago, I was given the SND bylaws. I was surprised to see that aside from the officers, all the directors are appointed. I don’t know of another journalism organization that operates that way.

I think this system is at the root of many of SND’s current leadership challenges. Some appointed directors have performed magnificently, devoting countless hours of their time to create wonderful projects that not only benefitted members and the industry, but also generated revenue to support education and outreach. Other appointed directors have contributed much less.

Now, in this time of rapid change, I think SND needs to get closer to its members and their needs, and to focus on what members really want from the organization. I think some or all of the directorships should be elected positions.

Asking directors to step forward and articulate what they would do for the organization, and then getting the members to endorse those views, is the quickest way to get SND’s activities aligned with what members really need.

Whenever I tell other people about all the SND projects that are handled by dedicated volunteers – the competitions, the judgings, the Quick Courses, the Annual Workshops – they are amazed. That volunteer energy is what created SND and sustained it through 30 turbulent years. Tapping that energy is what will propel the organization into the future.

***

SND’s new executive director, Stephen Komives, takes over on Jan. 1

***

Gayle Grin is a past president of SND and Managing Editor/ Design & Graphics, National Post. You can reach her at ggrin@nationalpost.com

It’s the season of giving, and the SND leadership team would like to give you a way to bring your friends into the Society in the year ahead.

We’re happy to announce that the first 30 nonmembers who join SND between now and Jan. 31 will receive a complimentary 12-month membership for a nonmember friend – generously donated by SND’s board of directors.

Already an SND member? Renew by Jan. 31 and you’ll be entered in a drawing for a free registration to SND Denver, compliments of the Orlando Sentinel.

Join or renew today!

Many thanks to those who contributed to this cause:

BOARD MEMBERS:

Melissa Angle

Michael Bird

Olivier Bourgeois

Bonita Burton

Steve Dorsey

Kenny Irby

Jans Peter Janisch

Stephen Komives

Pai

Jennifer George Palilonis

Gordon Preece

Luiz Adolfo Lino de Souza

Lee Steele

Kris Viesselman

PAST PRESIDENTS:

Bill Gaspard

Gayle Grin

Lucie Lacava

Tony Majeri

Phil Ritzenberg

Randy Stano

Warren Watson

As of Dec. 12, 2009, please remit all payments and direct all correspondence and invoices to:

SND 424 E. Central Blvd., Suite 406 Orlando, FL 32801 Phone: (407) 420-7748 Fax: (407) 420-7697

Direct all inquiries to the Executive Director, Stephen Komives, skomives@snd.org.

SND’s Web site and main e-mail address remain the same: http://www.snd.org; snd@snd.org.

Mobile media will be a category under the online competition. The net jury will judge the entries. Learn more at http://snds.org/Default.aspx?ID=71&Purge=True

A panel of 12 judges will begin reviewing cover entries soon after the competition’s Dec. 18 deadline.

“We began the cover competition as a way to get more design concepts for the annual book cover and it’s been so successful we’ve continued this way to generate excellent covers,” says Competition Director Marshall Matlock. He says the Competition Committee received 42 entries for the 30th Edition book, which is now being sold by the SND office.

The 31st edition book’s name will change to The Best of News Design™ to more accurately represent the book’s content, according to Matlock. The name change is being made because the book’s content pertains to more than newspapers. For the first time SND will accept entries from non-newspaper magazines. In past years only magazines published and distributed with a newspaper were accepted.

With the addition of magazine entries, the international competition will have more than 125 categories and sub-categories.

The deadline for e-mailing cover designs to Matlock is Dec. 18. Judges are expected to begin their cover reviews by Dec. 20 with the winner selected in early January 2010, Matlock says.

The winning cover will appear on the book that showcases winners from the 2009 publishing year.

Covers concepts must be 9 inches wide x 12 inches. An additional .25-inch is required for any side that will bleed beyond the trim size.

Designers are asked to submit high-resolution (300 dpi at full size) jpg, tiff or PDF files.

It’s recommended that the name of the book - The Best of News Design™ - appears on the cover as well as the name of the organizations, which may appear near the bottom of the cover, at the designer’s discretion. Also the book’s edition number has appeared on most past covers. The cover is normally printed in full color.

Send entries to Matlock at cmm@dreamscape.com. Please include the word “Cover” in the e-mail’s subject line along with the designer’s last name. If more than one e-mail is sent, please number beginning with #1.

Include each full-size cover as an e-mail attachment. In the e-mail’s text includes the designer’s name, publication, if applicable; job title, full business address, phone number and preferred e-mail address.

There is no limit to the number of covers a designer may enter but it is suggested that only one cover be attached to each e-mail sent. Covers may be stuffed if needed to save disk space. All submissions will be quickly acknowledged.

Entries become the property of the Society for News Design. At the discretion of judges, SND reserves the right to have no winning cover. Past cover entries are ineligible.

With the addition of non-newspaper magazine categories the competition will include a broader spectrum of print design work, said Matlock. “We’d like the cover to represent the book’s content of excellent print designs,” he says.

Send questions and cover entries to cmm@dreamscape.com.

We may be offline for a few days at the end of the month while we reconfigure the server, and we appreciate your patience. Stephen is in close communication with the executive committee and will prepare a monthly snapshot of where we are on membership, financial reserves and major initiatives.

Stephen’s direct SND email address is skomives@snd.org. He’ll have a new office phone number soon, in the meantime feel free to call Rhode Island with any questions. SND’s new mailing address is:

424 E. Central Blvd. Suite 406 Orlando, FL 32801

Stephen reports: “We made a lot of progress last week in transitioning the office, and Elise and Susan were great about taking me through the paces of the office operations. They have put me in excellent position going forward and I cannot thank them enough. SND and SNDF are now incorporated in Florida, and we have established banking operations and new merchant services.

“The most valuable object of the office, a G5 file server containing our databases, is in transit right now. I hope to have it up and running here by early next week, with remote access for Elise and Susan from Rhode Island. The remainder of the office - its other office equipment, membership files and financial books, in addition to 120 boxes of annuals - should be here by mid-December. Elise, Susan and I are determined to making this transition as seamless as possible.

“We’re also trying to realize as many efficiencies as possible as we move forward. Our new credit card processing agreement, for example, will save SND upwards of $5,000 in fees each year.

“Right now I’m in the process of transcribing all the notes I took in Rhode Island. It’s a lot. I was most impressed with the membership database that has been built over the past decade. While our membership currently stands at 1270, the database contains the names and contact info of more than 8,000 people who have crossed paths with SND and will be a valuable tool as we make a membership push.

“I’ll keep everyone posted as the transition proceeds. And once it’s complete, I will send weekly office updates on membership, finances and upcoming events.”

Ever wonder what SND HQ looks like?

Here’s a peek inside the operation of the current office:

This is the entry office, with a work station used by the temps and an auditor. Aside from the fax/copy machine and the high-speed printer, everything here will be boxed for storage or disposed of.

This is the shipping-storage area. SND plans to stop selling items from our website, so these items will be disposed of. A postage meter and G5 server not shown here will travel with Stephen to Florida.

This is the current Executive Director’s office. Several filing cabinets will travel to Florida, along with decades of catalogued slides, Design Journals dating back to the 1980s and the SND exhibition booth.

Going forward, Stephen will conduct most SND business in a digital environment.

Welcome to your new home, SND!

Thanks to all who have contributed ideas for improving our organization. We have the opportunity to start acting on these ideas. Please e-mail volunteers@snd.org by December 10 if you’d like to volunteer. Let us know which of these areas most interests you:

• Membership (adding value, broadening our base)
• Publications/communication
• Training/programming
• Fundraising

Soon, we’ll be making a number of appointments and assembling some task forces.

We understand that it is difficult to find time to volunteer. But, this is a critical year for SND. If everyone can give a little bit, the sum of those collective efforts will be great.

Thank you,

2010 officers:

Stephen Komives, Executive Director

Learn “How People Learn In Different Ways.” Learn “The Three E’s of the New Media Landscape: Embrace, Engage and Expand.” Learn: “Multimedia on the Cheap,” low-cost, easy ways to add rich content to web sites. Learn: “Five ideas that anyone can use for visualizing information in print and online.”

All of this is aimed at helping small to medium-size media markets. Presenters include Baltimore Sun Editor Monty Cook, UNC-Chapel Hill Journalism Professor Don Wittekind, Charlotte Observer artist William Pitzer and Richard Curtis, retired USA TODAY founder and managing editor/design.

SND membership is not required. Attendance is free but because of space limitations at the meet up site, it is limited to the first 30 who sign up. Please contact John Josey, Managing Editor, Lenoir News-Topic, jjosey@newstopic.com, or Richard Curtis at lakehouse2@cox.net.

These will be offered at a steep discount to SND members.

Now we need you to help us decide what topics to cover in these Webinars. What are you looking for?

Software skills: Flash, Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, 3D, etc.? How-tos? Design philosophy? Transition from print to digital? Ethics? Alternative story forms? Web design? Data visualization?

Please post your ideas in the comments below. Your suggestions will directly translate into the Webinars we offer on News University.

Thanks for your help!

Denise M. Reagan

SND Education & Training Director

SND and Youth Times are presenting an Asian Boot Camp on News Page Design in Hangzhou, China on Nov. 6-9. Steve Dorsey, SND vice president-elect and Detroit Free Press deputy managing editor for presentation and innovation, and Denise M. Reagan, SND education and training director and assistant managing editor for visuals at The Florida Times-Union and jacksonville.com.

Below is a sampling of what will be covered over those four days.

You can learn more and register for this event here.

NOV. 6

Best of Newspaper Design: We’ll explore who’s leading the World’s Best Designed categories and why. A look behind the scenes at the annual SND competition, we’ll listen to what judges are looking for and rewarding. Denise and Steve are both long-time assistants and judges of the SND competition and similar events.

The art of grids: The organization of space is the fundamental core of design work. We’ll explore why they matter, how they work and what value they serve to readers and editors.

Designing with ads in mind: Advertisements find their way into everything (we hope) and we have to work with and around them. We’ll look at top strategies for living with them and key errors to avoid.

Student projects: Exercise assigned for the week

NOV. 7

Color theory in publication design: A survey of why color theory matters and how it can shape a publication into an award-winning masterpiece. Colors change seasonally and even geographically, we’ll explore the impact and reasons behind it.

Photo use and editing: The very best pictures can be poorly used, the worst pictures can be assisted – it’s all in the editing and cropping. The best publications know how to use photos for dramatic impact in large and small situations.

News and sports front design: The big game and the big news have a lot in common and serve as a collection point for some of the best in powerful design – strong visuals, great cropping, dynamic typography and compelling stories all come together on these pages.

Black and white and inside page design: Most of the pages of a publication and INSIDE but we spend the least time on those designs. Why? Inside and B&W pages can have impact and should tell compelling stories. Ten tips on making your inside pages perform better.

NOV. 8

Planning for big events: Those who fail to plan, plan to fail. Big events will happen – so why aren’t you ready? We’ll help you prepare.

Alternative story forms: When space and time are tight, but the news doesn’t stop, we turn to new ways of telling stories. Alternative forms help us convey information quickly and directly. We’ll look at 5 major types and discuss how to deliver them on deadline.

Student projects: Sharing and discussing class exercises

NOV. 9

Designing for the e-reader: Beyond print and web pages new frontiers of design are ready for our attention. E-readers will offer a unique, new experience to readers — not entirely like print and not entirely like online. We’ll review the state of the industry, key concerns and examples from various R+D leaders in the field (Steve has been deeply involved in Gannett’s and the Detroit Media Partnership’s work with Plastic Logic, a new e-reader set to debut in Q1 2010).

Special project design: Working on extended series and special reports is not the same as day-to-day design work. It requires different kinds of planning and coordination. We’ll look at some of the best and distill 5 keys to making your special projects stronger.

Print and multimedia design integration: Making the transformation from print designer to multimedia designer.